A common theme of my reviews this semester has been my cynicism toward the current Hollywood machine and how it would rather burn legacy intellectual properties to the ground with endless sequels instead of empowering competent filmmakers to make new and unique stories. In a world of mindless cash grabs, “Monkey Man” and Dev Patel are a diamond in the rough.
“Monkey Man”’ — written and directed by and starring Patel — sees an unnamed protagonist, raised in Indian jungles, go on a journey to avenge the death of his late mother. While this revenge tale has been told thousands of different times, the twist “Monkey Man” puts on this age-old tale feels one of a kind.
Simply put, this movie is fantastic. It has the action of “John Wick” mixed with the redemption arc of Bruce Wayne in “The Dark Knight Rises,” with a splash of the anxiety produced from watching “Uncut Gems.”
The film brilliantly tackles abuses of power, political corruption and the mistreatment of the middle and lower classes — just to name a few. “Monkey Man” subtly juxtaposes modern India with the current body politic of the United States, critiquing the crookedness of the political class. This juxtaposition also begs a deeper, more tragic question about the nature of man. If, after all, these two wildly different cultures have the same issues of political corruption, is corruption and the abuse of power inevitable in all societies? Few films can tackle so many themes with such depth and success in a concise runtime of only X minutes.
The movie is intentionally shot to be stress-inducing. It feels claustrophobic, packed with shaky cam, close-ups and quick cuts to make us feel as anxious and traumatized as our nameless protagonist. When Patel does have a traumatic episode in the movie, we feel just as overstimulated as he does, building our empathy for his character. While this intentionally disorienting way of filmmaking largely acts as a strength of the film, it also can play as a weakness. At times the close-ups can feel overdone and make it difficult to fully appreciate the film’s otherwise thrilling action sequences.
The film looks incredible. Clever shots subtly enrich the film’s themes while others masterfully build suspense, anxiety, or are simply gorgeous. Though again, the decision to make the film so claustrophobic narrows our field of vision, at times taking away from how beautiful the film looks.
The acting in the film is fantastic, especially seeing the diversity of its characters. Patel puts on an extremely convincing performance, both in conveying his emotions but also as a fighter during the action scenes. The film was truly gut-wrenching when it wanted to be, and we can very well attribute that to the genius of the acting.
If you are expecting a full-blown “John Wick”-style, action-packed movie, temper your expectations. While this film does contain action scenes the iconic hitman clearly inspires — the movie even references John Wick by name — the film’s core is Patel’s character development, rather than the action sequences.
I also would give a content warning to viewers who suffer from trauma and would rather not watch gore and violence. This film accurately portrays what it is like to live with post-traumatic stress disorder, which could be triggering to an unsuspecting viewer.
In each of my reviews this semester, I have yearned for Hollywood to empower filmmakers to make original, creative and fresh stories instead of creating endless, soulless sequels to milk their legacy intellectual property for all the money they can. “Monkey Man” is an answer to my prayer to the film gods. This movie is simply incredible, my second favorite of the year, only bested by“Dune: Part Two.” I cannot wait to see what else Dev Patel has to offer in the future as a filmmaker.
